Unintended Consequences

[ZigZagJigsaw]

A colleague who voted for Brexit has just been informed she has no right to emigrate to the Netherlands with her family. The reason she wants to move there is because she says NL have a better healthcare system than the U.K. Her youngest child (teenager) is highly dependent on the NHS and apparently that would disqualify them, unless they agreed to not use the public health care system.

The above would apply even if the NL classed my colleague and her husband as highly skilled, which they don’t. British nationals are now classed as third country nationals so they have to relocate as highly skilled immigrants. No more free movement after Brexit.

She’s trying to be exactly the same kind of economic migrant to the NL that she voted to keep out of the U.K. And for some reason doesn’t seem to see the link.

I’m just nodding politely at work but I had to come and vent somewhere.

AIBU to think “you brought this on yourself”?

I work in an area where the best way to describe us is “over educated”.

I know how pretty much everyone I work with voted as we all came in the next day looking pale and shocked, sat at our desks with our heads in our hands and spent the day muttering “fuck” and “bloody idiots” a lot.

why would i snigger at people who didn't vote to make my life difficult.

I snigger at the idiots who voted for brexit and who now complain about the things that have happened as a result of what they voted for (eg not being able to move to the NL, or spend more than 90 days in their holiday home)

They deserve it.

as for how people voted: I don't find it odd that people at the time shared how they were going to vote. They could have been fibbing of course (that was the era of the "shy Tory" after all)

There were one or two good solid arguments for voting for Brexit, if you were in particular circumstances. Even i, an avid Remainer and Brit In Europe can see that. But even my mate who works in forestry, who has had mostly positive effects in his industry, voted remain. Even though he personally is better off.

There are things wrong with the EU, but everyone in the UK can keep their traps shut about it, since it is nothing to do with them. Those of us in the EU will continue to vote for what we think is best, including (in my case) some reforms to EU policies.

The UK had a really really good deal, what with the rebate etc, it baffles me why they chucked that all away.

It's just going to be painful for many, many years to come.

Although on the plus side, we have only 10% USA tariffs and the EU have 20%

that's a bit of a knee-jerk answer though. "ohhh we have lower tariff rates than the EU"

The question is how badly will the EU be affected? how badly the UK?

FWIW i think the world is heading into a huge depression and being part of a good trading bloc, with the EU, with the US or whoever, is going to be helpful for smaller nations. we will see. There is talk of favourable trading between Canada, the UK and the EU.

Karma's a bitch eh!

I don’t really see why this proves that Brexit was a bad idea. The Netherlands should be able to stop non residents from accessing their healthcare system same as the UK should. We can expect other countries to subsidise the UKs broken system

if not she should either have informed herself or abstained.

Yes but it’s on top of damage to the economy already done by brexit.

I don’t think any of us knew what we were voting before because the politicians had not worked out the details themselves let alone explained them.

but that was a good reason for voting for the status quo. Although i realise that would have pushed back a further referendum for several years (the last one was 1973 or so)

Or people being sensible and asking the questions? People who wanted to remain had the advantage in knowing what we were voting for, but those who wanted change should have been pushing politicians for an answer. Easier said and done in hindsight.

But again: the idea that people who want to stop the boats and send them all back home, now moaning because they can't just up sticks and take advantage of other countries' excellent health system... makes me have a really good belly laugh.

It was the opposite at my work. My head of department was handing out Remain badges.

I can be friends with people regardless of their political views, but I think it's really bad to discuss it at work.

Looking at this particular case, I'm really surprised no one's said anything.
And @ZigZagJigsaw now you said his age, I think she probably had lots of faith in the NHS in 2016 and now doesn't.

Maybe it's nice to be so self-centred! 😂

”But I never thought leopards would eat my face” says woman who voted for leopards eating peoples’ faces party.

Indeed but you would have thought a degree of critical thinking should have been applied to the situation - but apparently not.

Yep but the rest of us don’t deserve it and we have to live with it. Forgive me if I don’t find any of it snigger worthy. They were lied to and I also think Socrates was right.

@Didimum

Does that include you being WAY too stupid as well?

Way before Brexit I was talking to someone who was emigrating because "there are too many immigrants in Britain." They looked at me like I had two heads when I pointed out that they would be an immigrant in whatever country they were going to . . .

Well then I'm clearly not sniggering at you so I don't much appreciate your touchy posts as if I was.

I have consistently, on this thread and many others, been both deeply sympathetic to retainers who feel they're hard done to and fairly sympathetic to leave voters who honestly didn't église quite how bad it would be.

I have zero sympathy and plenty of disdain for those leopard voters who now have a big cat chowing down on their face.

I would have thought most countries wouldn't accept migration if one family member had significant health issues

Pretty much everyone I know was open about which way they were voting at the time.

And Brexit voters are sore winners so a lot of them gloated directly afterwards and some continue to do so (with no basis for it, because in winning they actually lost, and we are all worse off as a result, no matter which way we voted).

Yep – I don't want a political decision of that magnitude in my hands either.

But I'll take the 22 upvotes on my post and the 6 favourable replied as evidence that most people are in understanding of my meaning without getting so offended.

I'm guessing that a huge number of those voting for Brexit could not or would not avail of Free Movement anyway. The rest of the pro Brexit support messages were very appealing to them, even though the devil is in the detail, as we have found out.

As previous posters have said , those voting leave were very vocal

My parents live in a far-right liking place. Vote BNP / Reform and voted for Brexit because they were told that the Pakistani and Indian population would be sent home.
They had no idea that most of these people are 2nd or 3rd generation / British citizens and wouldn't be going anywhere... and weren't prepared to listen to anything other than the bigoted views that suited their narrative.
Meanwhile in the real world...
@ZigZagJigsaw you have my empathy.

I'm Northern Irish and what has hugely wound me up is the number of people I know that voted brexit, called remainers sheeple, generally quite horrible about it, who now have gone for their Irish passports. I know its impossible but I wish they could be banned from obtaining them.

Note I'm not one who tars all people who vote for brexit with the same brush. There are problems with the EU and people's genuine concerns were mocked and dismissed. I feel progressives (I count myself as one) need to do a much better job of communicating and not talking down. Racism, sexism, all forms of discrimination have thrived because conversations are shut down.